toybunovel Chapter 172: Oath
Chapter 172: Oath
The elders fell silent one by one as the radiance continued along the table.
The Light moved through the chamber without accusation or threat, searching for whatever no mortal hand could hide. When the glow touched the first elder, the anger drained from his face, leaving his jaw clenched and his eyes lowered toward the table. A moment ago, he had been furious at Cassandra. Now, beneath the Light Tree’s witness, he looked painfully aware of every intention inside his own heart.
Another elder swallowed. The formal one clasped his hands together, while the harsh elder slowly removed his palms from the table as if the ancient wood had become too sacred to strike.
Cassandra watched them all without gloating. Gloating would have cheapened the victory, so she merely sat with her calm smile and let the Light do what her words had prepared.
At last, the first elder bowed his head.
His voice came out lower than before, though it still carried the force of a man trying to protect what pride remained to him. "I swear on my name that my heart is free of greed, and that I shall use the tax money from Night Espresso’s facilities solely for the benefit of the Forest Hidden Monster Hunter Academy."
He drew in a slow breath, then placed his palm on the Forest Table.
"Should I break this oath, may the Light Tree burn me alive."
The light beneath his palm deepened, and a golden thread climbed around his hand, circled his wrist, and sank into his skin like a seal. The elder kept still as the glow marked him, his face turning solemn in a way anger never could have achieved.
The formal elder stood next. He smoothed one sleeve, placed his palm on the table, and spoke as though the oath were being entered into the academy’s oldest record.
"I swear on my name that my heart is free of greed, and that I shall use the tax money from Night Espresso’s facilities solely for the benefit of the Forest Hidden Monster Hunter Academy. Should I break this oath, may the Light Tree burn me alive."
The glow answered him as well.
Then the harsher elder rose, stripping the moment of ceremony by wasting no breath beyond what the oath required.
"I swear."
The Light waited, and his jaw flexed.
"I swear on my name that my heart is free of greed, and that I shall use the tax money from Night Espresso’s facilities solely for the benefit of the Forest Hidden Monster Hunter Academy. Should I break this oath, may the Light Tree burn me alive."
Only then did the glow sink into his skin.
After that, the rest followed. One elder spoke with reverence, another with reluctance, and another with a voice that trembled just enough to betray how seriously he understood the punishment. The oath moved around the Forest Table in a heavy rhythm, no longer a political performance but something closer to judgment.
The chamber grew quieter with each vow. Voices that had been sharp with resentment lowered into reverence, and hands that had struck the table now rested on it with care. The Forest Table received each oath without judgment, while the Light Tree sealed every word. Some elders spoke firmly, others spoke with pride, and a few paused before the final sentence, as if only then realizing they had placed their lives beneath their own promise.
"Should I break this oath, may the Light Tree burn me alive."
By the time the words circled the chamber for the last time, the threat inside them had hardened into law.
Cassandra remained seated through all of it.
She had held different plans until today, or perhaps until the day Martin clearly revealed his fondness for the academy and Cascade Valley. That fondness had changed the value of this place. A useful academy was one thing. An academy Martin liked was another.
Now Cassandra played her cards to keep the elders from using the money carelessly. If Night Espresso was going to raise the academy’s value, then the academy would serve its people properly. The elders were not saints, and Cassandra had no intention of trusting them. That was why she had forced their greed, pride, and fear to stand beneath the Light Tree and speak first.
Only after the last elder finished did Cassandra move.
She uncrossed her legs, then crossed them the other way with unhurried grace. Her hand rested lightly on the Forest Table, not in the brightest part of the glow, but close enough for the warmth to touch her fingers.
The elders looked at her with a mixture of anger, wariness, and fear.
Cassandra smiled as if all those reactions were equally acceptable.
Then she gave her oath.
"I swear to do anything for the academy’s prosperity."
The Light Tree answered, and its glow touched her hand.
For a moment, the chamber remained perfectly still. Where the elders had bound themselves with narrow oaths around tax money, new facilities, and their own conduct, Cassandra’s words spread wide enough to leave her room to breathe.
Anything for the academy’s prosperity.
The elders could hear devotion in it, and the Light accepted it as noble, but Cassandra knew how much space those words left her.
The Light curled around her fingers, warm and gold, then sank into her skin. Cassandra did not lower her eyes. She looked straight ahead, her smile faint and unreadable, as though the oath had settled in her hand with the shape of a blade.
The canopy overhead shivered, and leaves rustled despite the absence of wind.
Then the Light Tree bestowed its answer.
Golden motes fell from above like drifting sparks, gathering in the air before Cassandra instead of landing on the table. They formed symbols, lines, and system-blue frames edged with living gold, their radiance reflecting along the table’s polished grain and in the eyes of every elder present.
Cassandra’s guild mark warmed.
A notification unfolded before her.
[Chain Quest Received]
[Forest Hidden Monster Hunter Academy Development Project]
[The Light Tree has acknowledged the elders’ petition.]
[The Night Espresso Guild has been selected as the executor of the academy’s development chain.]
More light gathered, and another window opened beneath the first.
[Primary Objective]
[Explore 100% of the Level 60 Hidden Dungeon of the Light Tree]
[Current Progress: 10%]
[Time Limit: 14 days.]
A quiet murmur passed through the chamber as the elders stared at the impossible weight of the order: Level 60, a Hidden Dungeon, and only fourteen days.
Even the elders who had pushed for this request looked shaken now that the Light Tree had answered so directly. Their ambition had become a quest, their demand had become a deadline, and their academy’s future had been placed in the hands of the very guild Cassandra controlled.
Cassandra read the windows once, then again, and her smile did not fade.
The golden frames hovered before her, bright enough to paint her face in warm light. Around her, the elders sat beneath the canopy in solemn silence, each bound by oath and trapped inside the future they had asked for.
Cassandra leaned back in her seat.
"Then I will make good use of it," she said.